The Windup Girl

A stunning, hard-hitting ending (which I will not give away) to a well-written, well thought-out book. Biopunk in the vein of Ribofunk by Paul Di Filippo. A scary world of mega-corporation domination, looming eco-disaster, and political backstabbing. A story that masterfully divides the narrative between several characters, none of whom are truly the protagonist, and none of whom are the clear epitome of good or evil, which is a breath of fresh air.

After I received the book, I was disappointed to see the cover blurb: I hope he writes 10 sequels – as I was fearful I had just purchased a novel that was going to require me to purchase a second or third to finish it. I'm not a fan of that. Yes, I like long work, but I like to know in advance that I will need to invest more so I can make an informed purchase. However, after finishing the novel, I couldn't agree with the cover blurb more. This is a novel set in a world that deserves to have more stories told. So I will definitely be picking up Pump Six and Other Stories (a collection of short stories set thus).

Oh boy. What I knew of the premise of this book intrigued me - a dystopian future exploration of agriculture and biotechnology politics. What I did not know was how gruesomely violent and rapey it would be - in ways that felt unnecessary and exploitative. As in, not just depicting violence necessary to move the plot forward or adequately set the context, but eroticizing it.

At first I was confused - this book has gotten so much praise and awards, how could I hate it this much? And then I remembered this book was published in 2009, at a time when prestige TV was almost universally hyper-violent, around when a critic I follow said, “this is the golden age of television if you don't mind watching someone getting shot in the face,” and I opted for less prestigious comedies instead. So for the same reason I tapped out of Game of Thrones after watching 10 too many beheadings in the pilot (I didn't even make it to the gratuitous rape scenes in that show), this book is not for me. Maybe for other people, but not for me.

This is one of those books where I felt like I owed it to the book to finish, which is usually not a good feeling. I'm not sure what my hang up was, the premise was very intriguing. Post-apocalyptic future where crop disease (and human disease) has given food suppliers an enormous amount of control over the fate of nations. Alternating narrators eventually cross paths.

I just wasn't very invested in the characters, the story seemed sort of clinically cold and a bit meandering, That being said, I really do appreciate that this was not set in the United States featuring a rag tag group of survivors who live off the land in the wake of an EMP. Or zombies. Or a nuke.

Nice twist on this genre and really neat to read a book that takes place in Thailand.

I think I've decided I don't like the star rating system. I like analyzing things too much, and my feelings on this book run the whole gambit.

I'll start by saying that as far as writer's craft, Paolo Bacigalupi is a five star writer. The way he plays with the language, his powers of description, his attention to minutiae are all skills I to which I aspire. This book surrounds you with post-crisis Thailand from the sweltering heat to the stink of plague. The world envisioned is also terrifyingly probable. I remember doing research back in college on genetically modified foods and the disease mutations produced by them, but I don't think my brain ever made the next logical leap to fear and horror until reading this book.

The complexity of Bacigalupi's plot is intense. There are so many crises facing each and every character, and just when one of them distracts you to the point you forget the others, boom! Also he has the plague! Or white shirts attack. Or a plan goes awry. It's a lot to keep track, and Bacigalupi does it masterfully, instilling suspense and surprise at every chapter. Add to that the normalcy of a world without cats or elephants or pineapples, of government balancing on knife edges, of humanity delving just a little too deep. It's a world just slightly twisted from the one we know, and one where we could end up with just a few mis-steps.

His characters too are complex, believable, and sympathetic. Kanya's life as a double agent, coming to sympathize with the people she still despises, is fascinating to watch, and I love how she ends the story. Jaidee is likable, direct, and therefore doomed, but I loved his muay thai approach to the world, and I don't think I'd like the book at all if his phii didn't come around to snark behind Kanya's back. Hock Seng's unstoppable need to prepare and survive at whatever cost is balanced out by his sympathy for little Mai. He's like a Thenardier with a heart. Emiko, naturally, is the character that held my attention the strongest. I love the way her alien nature comes through the prose, the steady fighting of her nature and training against the reality of a world she for which she was never intended. When Emiko murders the Somdet Chaopraya and his men, I just about cheered. For a title character, though, she gets remarkably little screen time.

I think that Emiko's lack of screen time is really what keeps me from loving this book for all of its craft. The title is “The Windup Girl,” and I went in expecting a story about human hybrids surviving in a post-crisis world. I expected her to go North to the windup encampment. Instead, I got a story about Thai politics and genetically modified fruit. It's an interesting story, but it's not the kind of book that would normally peak my interest. For every heart-breaking or hear-stopping emotional chapter, there's five about political nuances and lychee. It was all necessary, but I found those chapters hard to sit through, especially in the beginning. If you have trouble with slow-starting novels, this one is really not for you.

I'd add to that statement that you should not try this novel if you are not okay with a lot of disturbing, often sexual, violence. I'm not accusing Bacigalupi of being gratuitous because that violence really cements the world and is vital to Emiko's character change, to the very idea that the mistreatment of just one person can topple the world (a theme I very much enjoyed), but it is graphic and again, hard to read.

It's hard for me to sum up my feelings on this book because they are so polarized. On the one hand, I have to respect the craft and skill that went into its creation as well as the entirely topical themes it introduces. On the other... it wasn't the book I was looking for. I didn't get enough time with the characters I wanted to follow, and I had to spend a lot of pages mired in stories I wasn't interested in. 3 stars might be harsh, but using the rating as my strictly personal opinion, that's about where it falls.

I'd already read the first two-thirds of this book before finally getting into it. Before this point, I found it to be nigh well incomprehensible. I don't know what finally clicked for me, but when it does pick up, it does so with gusto, finally capturing my interest and saving it from...well, the short list of books I hate.

Probably not a re-read, though.

I agree with many others who read this that it takes a bot of work to get into but I think it largely pays off. The world Bacigalupi creates is unique and intriguing. The setting in Thailand is quite exotic to my US-raised self, but I feel like I get an authentic taste of it. And the characters are captivating in the end, especially Emiko and the Captain.

This is tough. I think that I would give it 2.5 if I could, but given I can't, it is probably closer to 2 than 3. I liked the idea of the world Paolo Bacigalupi built. Emiko herself was an interesting character. However, I just didn't care for anyone else. Jaidee perhaps, but I didn't feel any connection to the characters, and there was really no one I felt I could cheer for. Perhaps Kanya in the end.

The writing is fine, the world is interesting enough. But in the end, I just didn't care about any of the characters, and this was the book's biggest failing for me.

I ended up DNFing this book. I might return to it at some point in the future, frankly I don't like abandoning books, but I found the story difficult to follow. Imagine all the politics of Game of Thrones, except much less interesting. Also set in a future dystopia where there are environmental disasters, food shortages, and artificially engineered people. I was listening to the audiobook, but with about 6 hours left I realized I had no idea what was going on and decided not to continue making the effort. There were parts I liked, but overall I felt that plot sometimes felt secondary to world building and detail. With hundreds (ok...maybe even a thousand) books on my TBR, I can't be wasting time on books that bore me, and this one did.

It isn't often that I start a book by a new author and find myself unable to put it down. At the moment I'm about 60% into the Windup Girl (gotta love the new Kindle inspired method of gauging your progress in a book), and find myself even daydreaming about the world portrayed. Since buying the kindle I've been caught off guard quite often by how much I have read when I later check how many pages were in a book.
This is the first book by Paolo Bacigalupi that I've read and I've already decided I'll have to see what else he has written. The pacing is fantastic, the world created is immersive, and the story is tightly written with believable characters. This book really does have everything going for it so far. Hopefully he will be able to continue it until the end, I'd hate to finish this one with that often felt sense of outrage when a writer can't put together a cohesive ending.

Full review posted at:
http://www.mattsrespite.com/2012/01/windup-girl-book-review.html

One of the best pieces of post-collapse speculative fiction I've read. Bacigalupi's dystopian vision is rooted in a strong understanding of both ecology and human behavior. The story is told through the eyes of five flawed, yet compelling characters, chasing survival and/or prosperity in a future Bangkok threatened by rising sea levels and genetically engineered diseases. There are no true heroes, nor villains, in The Windup Girl's cast of characters as the author avoids moralizing and instead reflects the messy reality of complex characters trying to survive in a dangerous world. The plot moves forward smoothly, and accelerates into a thrilling final battle, and a conclusion that is both hopeful and terrifying.

This novel offers a fascinating look at what might happen in a distant future shaped by genetically engineered crops and animals. Set in a future Bankok where one of the last pure Seed Banks still exists, this is a story of corporate greed, the societal definition of what it means to be human, and the hope that can be fanned to a flame in the soul of a “new person.” The writing is stunning, the characters fully-formed and the setting captivating.